Authorization for Embroidered Cloth Shoulder Titles

[Bill A]

Doing some more research today, I came across RO 450. This order is quoted in part in Clive Law's Distinguishing Patches. However, Clive had edited it to only present the information about formation patches. In RO 450, authorization for embroidered shoulder titles for overseas units is given. The authorization was effective 1 Nov 1940, and at that time only really applied to 1 CID, as 2 CID had the geometric pattern of formation patches that also identified the regiment. This order was the precedent for 3 CID obtaining embroidered shoulder titles, and eventually 4 CAD. Other documentation in the same series of files indicates that 1 CID, other than the PPCLI who already had cloth titles, obtained their first issue of shoulder titles in the UK.
As is well known, 5 CAD was deviating from the RO with the unit title abbreviations applied on the divisional patch. This practice was also approved in RO 450.
With this RO, the Canadian army started to move away from the khaki slip-ons (except in Canada), and developed the wide range of coloured embroidered shoulder flahses. As units prepared for overseas, requests for approval of the shoulder titles flooded into NDHQ. Some regiments even obtained titles at their own expense before approval was granted. These first issue embroidered titles would in turn be replaced by the printed economy pattern in 1943.